DOC RELATES TO PROJECT MERRIMAC (MERRIMACK) - SITUATION INFORMATION REPORT - BLACK PANTHER PARTY

• Document Type: SPECIALCOLLECTION
• Collection: MHCHAOS
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 00018087
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 9
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2024
• Document Release Date: December 24, 2024
• Case Number: F-2016-00496
• Publication Date: November 15, 1968

Approved for Release: 2024/12/19 C00018087
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SITUATION INFORMATION REPORT
Black Panther Party
A confidential source of a Government component who has
furnished reliable information in the past, advised that a student
reportedly associated with the Student Strike Committee in
Mexico City, spoke at a November 6 meeting of the Black Panther
Party in Los Angeles. At the meeting it was agreed that Mexican
students will be sent to Los Angeles for Black Panther Party
instruction in disruptive tactics, construction of explosives
and homemade incendiary devices, and the stealing of military
arms. The Mexican students would then return to Mexico to pply
their newly acquired knowledge. Source also advised that the
BPP plans to send members to Mexico but the purpose was not
indicated.
Travel of BPP members to Mexico and to Cuba has been
noted previously.
Mark RUDD
Mark RUDD, former head of SL G at Columbia University,
was cleared November 8 of a charge of disorderly conduct stemming
from the student occupation last May 18 of a Columbia-owned tene-
ment. The dismissal was ordered despite the plea of Assistant
District Attorney Gershman, who predicted that the ruling would
encourage others to demonstrate. RUDD still faces charges of riot
in the second degree, inciting to riot and criminal trespass as a
result of a protest at Columbia last May 22. RUDD identified
himself as a former student and "now a lecturer."
Calendar of Tentatively Scheduled Activities of Possible Interest
"Asterisked" items are either being reported for the
first time or contain additional or changed information on previous-
ly reported activities.
November 17
The Communist .parties of the Soviet Union and fifty-
seven other parties recently agreed in a meeting in
Budapest to shelve plans for a World Communist Summit
Conference in Moscow on 25 November. Another prepara-
tory meeting has been called for 17 November to
examine the date for calling the Internationgl Con-
ference and the method of its further preparations.
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- November 17
November 17
November 18-22
November 18
November 20
Iovember 24
I.
*San Francisco, California - A rally in support of the
twenty-seven enlisted men who participated in a
sit-down strike at the Post Stockade of the Presidio
of San Francisco will be held at the Lombard Street
Gate to the Presidio Base. The rally will be spon-
sored by the RESISTANCE.
*Los Angeles, California - The "Newton-Cleaver Defense
Committee" has tentatively scheduled a bFreedom
Rally" at the L. A. Trade Technical School.
Speakers are scheduled to be: Eldridge CLEAVER;
Chas. GARY, leftist Chief Counsel for CLEAVER and
Huey NEWTON; Melvin NEWTON, brother of Huey and
Chairman for the NEWTON-CLEAVER Defense Committee;
Oscar ACOSTA, Chief counsel for the "Chicago 13"
and the Brown Berets; Rev. James DONALDSON; and
Richardson WASSERSTRAM, Prof. of Law and Philoso-
phy at UCLA and the rally chairman.
*Nairobi, Kenya - Forty American and African leaders
from widely varying Governmental and private back-
grounds will meet to confer on mutual problems.
American participants will include two members of
Congress, corp. Presidents, Government officials
and news executives as well as civil rights leader
Bayard RUSTIN and Prof. Chas. V. HAMILTON of
Roosevelt University, co-author with Stokely
CARMICHAEL of "Black Power: 'The Politics of
Liberation in America.'" American participants
are expected to meet President-elect NIXON on
their return - to convey a sense of the attitudes
expressed by the Africans.
Oakland, California - This date has been set for
the trial of the seven young men under conspiracy
indictment for their part in organizing the
October 1967 demonstrations in front of the Oakland
Induction Center. The charge against the Oakland
Seven - "Conspiracy to commit a misdemeano7-=-"-
carries a maximum penalty of ten years imprisonment
plus a.$10,000 fine.
Abbie HOFFMAN, Ylppie leader, arrested and charged
with defacing the American flag on 3 October during
HCUA hearings .has a trial date set for 20 November.
He pleaded NOT guilty at his arraignment.
*St. Louis; Missouri - The New Democratic Coalition -
dissidents whose protests splintered the Democratic
Party before the election - plan to meet to-prepare
for a national "founding conference" in March 1969 -
to organize to fight or control of the party.
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November 25-Dec. 2 *The National Welfare Rights Organization (NWRO), a
militant "welfare rights" group which claims 30,000
members in seventy cities has proclaimed this period
as "national get it week." The highlight will be
Thanksgiving Day, November 280 when welfare recipi-
ents will stage demonstrations to say Iffo thanks,
America" for the inadequate dole they get.
BWRO announced a December "spend-the-rent" campaign
in which welfare clients would keep their rent money
to spend on basic needs not covered in their relief
checks.
November 28.
South Bend, Indiana - The National Student Association
Convention on White Racism is scheduled on this date.
The University of Maryland formed a Campus Coalition
Against Racism (CCAR) in early October. The research
that will emanate from the CCAR will be used to
represent the University of Maryland at the NSA Con-
vention.
November 29-Dec. 1 A Hemispheric Conference to End the War in Vietnam
will apparently meet in Montreal to develop coor-
dination against U. S. intervention in Vietnam and
the Americas. This meeting had earlier been indi-
cated for 12-14 October. A planning meeting was
held in Montreal on 7-8 September. A flyer issued
in connection with the conference proclaims that
approximately 2,000 .people from throughout the
hemisphere - over 1/4 from Canada will attend. Among
the listed sponsors from the U. S. are the following:
Donna ALLAN & gmar WILSON
Women Strike for Peace
Julian BOND - Georgia State Assembly
Southern Christian Education Fund
Ossie DAVIS and Ruby TIPP
Prof. Robert GREENBLATT - NMCEWV
Father James GROPPI
James JACKSON - CPUSA
Rev. B ernard LAFAYETTE - SCLC
Linda MORSE - 5th Avenue Peace Parade' Committee
Dr. Benjamin SPOCK
Jarvis TYNER - National Chairman - W. E. B. DuBois
Club ;
John WILSON - SNCC _
It was indicated that the conference would deal with
U. S. involvement in Latin America only so far as
it affects the Vietnam War.
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Delegations representing the Democratic Republic of
Vietnam and the National Liberation Front will be
present.
Initiated by a broad coalition in Montreal, the
meeting will include activists from the U. S.,
Canada and many countries of Central and South
America. Unification and eipansion of the
peace movements in these areas will repdtedly be
the conference's goal. Among speakers are to be:
Nov. -29-Dec. 1
December 1-5
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Cheddi JAGAN, Communist former Prime Minister
of British Guiana (Guyana) and David DELLINGER
of the National Mobilization Committee. Com-
munists, Pacifists, Negro militants, and
liberals are included in the U. S. delegation.
Chicago, Illinois - The Young Socialist Alliance
(youth section of the Socialist Workers Party)
has called for a national convention of Revolution-
ary Socialists over the Thanksgiving weekend.
Representatives from the German SD6 - French FCR -
Japanese Zengakuren and Socialists from Italy,
England and some of the Socialist Black countries
are expected. Purpose of the convention report-
edly is to discuss building a serious revolution-
ary organization in the advanced industrial coun-
tries including the U. S. A.
Princeton, New Jersey - It can be anticipated that
the U. S. A. will be soundly chastised as well as
praised when more than eighty leading intellectuals
from throughout the world will gather at the
Institute for Advanced Studies to assess many of
the problems that will confront the next American
President.
Plans for the five-day seminar on "The U. S. - Its
problems, Impact and Image in the World" were td be
announced on 28 October in London and in Paris by
Shepard STONE, President of the International
Association for Cultural Freedom. The association
is a private organization of scholars, writers,
and men of public affairs that is receiving finan-
cial support from the Ford Foundation. '
Dr. Carl KAYSEN, director of the Institute for
Advanced Studies, and Jean-Jacques SERVAN-SCHREIBER,
publisher of the French weekly, L'EXpressl-and the
author of the best-selling book "The Americac
Challenge," will be co-chairman of the conference.
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Stone said, "We hope that the incoming administration
will be represented at the meeting as we shall
gather some of the most articulate and influential
critics and advocates of American policy.
Two Soviet scholars who have accepted invitations
to the meeting are Anatoly A. GROMYKO, son of
Foreign Minister Andrei A. GBOMYKD, and Stanislav
MKNSCHIKOY, a director of the Institute of World
Economy. Several distinguished East European
scholars and writers have been invited. They
include Milovan DJILAS (Yugoslavia) and Ivan SVITAK
(Czech Communist Party liberal).
An American contingent of thirty-one participants
will include a number of former Government officials -
among them McGeorge BUNDY, George W. BALL, John K.
GALBRAITH, Arthur SCHLESINGER, Jr., and George KENNAN.
Among the British to attend are: Prof. Alan BULLOCK,
chairman of the Board of the Association for Cultural
Freedom; Alastair BUCHAN, director of the Institute
of Strategic Studies; and Geoffrey MARTIN, chairman
of the National Union of Students. A number of
other Euroiean as well as Latin Americans will
attend.
Perhaps not the least interesting of the other American
participants will be: Lillian HELLMAN, playwright;
Roy INNIS, Director of CORE; Daniel BELL, prof. of
Sociology at Columbia University; Irving HOWE, editor
of DISSENT; Edward SHILS, Prof. of Sociology, University
of Chicago; Saul BELLOW, novelist; and Norman POEHORETZ,
editor of Commentary magazine.
Be]. Air, Maryland - The trial of H. Rap BROWN on
charges of arson and inciting to riot in Cambridge,
Maryland, had been scheduled with Judge Harry E.
DWYER, presiding. (It has been postponed.)
*Oakland, California - The April 6, 1968, "Shoot-out
Crowd" of the Black Panther Party have had their
trial set for 2 December. Eldridge CLEAVER, Minister
of Information of the BPP is one of the six defen-
dants. All pleaded innocent to a variety of charges
stemming from the shoot-out with the Oakland Police
Department in Oakland. This was the confrontation
during which Bobby HUTTON of the BPPIs was killed.
CLEAVER has been stating that he will not return to
prison - that he will hide out in the black ghettos -
and that he will kill anyone who attempts tosim-
prison him. CLEAVER has been ordered to return to
'prison on 27 Novemberjollowing revocation of his
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December.5 '
December 7 & 8
December 8
December 9
a.
parole because of his involvement in the gun battle
with Oakland, California, Police in April 1968.
An Alameda County Superior Court Judge on 8 Nov.
rejected a defense motion to quash the indictments
of Eldridge CLEAVER and the five other Black
Panthers on the contention that six of the Grand
Jury that indicted them did not represent the
Negro Community. He set November 20 to-decide
whether the six would be tried together or separ-
ately for attempted murder and assault stemming
from the April gun battle. CLEAVER is still free
on $50,000 bail.
New York City - The Guardian, self-styled indepen-
dent radical newspaper, holds its 20th anniversary
celebration at the Fillmore East.
Carl OGLESBY, an srs leader, will be the main speaker.
Entertainment is to include folk and rock music and
speeches by other radicals - "a general onslaught of
political information and entertainment, some serious
and some absurd, leading to a radical perspective
for l969."- -
Task Force - the underground newsrag published in
San Francisco - aimed at servicemen and veterans -
carried a notice in its October 25 edition calling
for GI actions December 7 and 8: "1. Organize -
teach-ins, rallies, marches, discussions, GI dinners,
etc. 2. Contact - Local vets, student anti-war
groups for assistance. 3. Write - P. O. Box 31268,
San Francisco, 94131, so we can inform you of what's
happening around the country."
Tacoma, Washington - The GI-Civilian Alliance for
Peace is planning a GI march for December 8, which
it hopes will attract 5,000 demonstrators.
Los Angeles, California - The trial of Sirhan B.
SIRHAN on.the charge that he murdered Robert F.
KENNEDY, has been delayed until 9 December on a
motion by the defense. Superior Judge Herbert V.
WALKER, the Senior Criminal Court Judge in
Los Angeles County presided over the hearing and
will preside at the trial. Judge WALKER, said,
over prosecution objections, that he intended to
sequester the jury, once it was sworn. He said
that jury selection would begin December 92 and
that if no jury was selected by December 23,
he would recess the trial until January 2, 7'.69.
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- December 13
� December 21
January 1962
New York City - The National Emergency Civil Liber-
ties Committee annual Bill of Rights dinner is
scheduled for the Americana Hotel. The NECIC is
the old ECLC rejuvenated with a new name. The old
ECLC was cited as a Communist Front in 1956 by the
Senate Internal Security Subcommittee and in 1959
by HCUA. Featured speakers will be: Dr. Benjamin
SPOCK and Dick GREGORY. "
Corliss LAMONT is chairman of NECLC.
Washington, D. C. - The HCUA subcommittee after
holding three days of open hearings into the
conduct and connection of some groups and individ-
uals in the DNC disorders is in recess until
21 December. Five of the seven witnesses sub-
poenaed have not been heard and are expected to
return. They are David DELLINGER, Rennie DAVIS,
Tom HAYDEN, Jerry RUBIN, and Abbie HOFFMAN.
Robert GREENBLATT of the NMC and Dr. David YOUNG
of the Medical Committee for Hunan Rights who
testified that week were released from their
subpoenas but could be summoned back.
Guerrilla, an underground publication, recently
proposed that in January 1969, independent revolu-
tionaries hold a "Congress for Cultural Revolution."
"The Congress should be organized to include the
independent revolutionary media: various representa-
tives of the underground communities, and other
independent revolutionary organizations and individ-
uals who are interested in total cultural revolution
whether they be activists, anarchists, poets and
artists, or socialists.
(1) The red and black should attempt to formulate
a broad program of cultural revolution which includes
an analysis of the tasks facing cultural revolution-
aries from the point of view of the ecology, mor-
phology and cybernetics as well as from the more
traditional revolutionary informations.
(2) Polarize the underground. The CIA and other
intelligence agencies have begun to consciously in-
filtrate the culturel revolution via grants, fake
poetry projects, magazines and the usual fronts.
GUERRILLA-believes it is necessary to name and define
the counter-cultural revolution so that a conscious
federation of cultural revolution may be but.
(3) ..The Congress should attempt to formulate its
own 4-year plan of cultural revolution. Social
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January 30 1969
January 3, 1969
January 18 -
January 20
January 20
January 20
revolution as a weapon of cultural revolution.
Those interested in helping to organize a national
CONGRESS FOR CULTURAL REVOLUTION may write GUERRILLA.
*Washington, D. C. - Prior to Election Day, the NMC
had announced its intention to produce follow-up
protests. One is scheduled"for 3 January if the
Electoral College fails to give a majority to any
candidate and the choice of President is placed in
the hands of the House of Representatives, or for
Inauguration Day, 20 January if the "peace" movement
believes the new President will refuse to change
policies regarding U. S. involvement in Vietnam. It
would seem that the January 3 protest will be can-
celled as NIXON appears assured of an electoral
majority.
Included in the new program allegedly adopted by
the NMCEWVN (Chairman David DELLINGER) at a September
14 administrative committee meeting in D. C. - "Rally
supporters to pressure the new House of Representa-
tives on 3 January and the new President at his
inauguration 20 January 1969.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - The Black Liberation
Alliance, formed October 18-20 at Columbus, Ohio,
by 50 dissatisfied members of CORE from five states
will hold its first convention. Temporary officers
were elected at Columbus. It was decided that the
organization will strive for basic social, economic,
and political change in the U. S. A. rather than
reform. It will seek racial separation, black nation-
alism, and the formation of a separate black nation
within the boundaries of the U. S.
The Youth International Party (YIPPIES) announced
it will hold a,"festival of life" at Washington, D.
during the Inauguration of the President. Yippies
contributed much of the disruptive activity at the
Democratic National Convention with their "Festival
of Life" there.
Jerry RUBIN (YITPIES) has stated that he and his
colleagues will try to make it rough for whomever
is inaugurated President on 20 January. They will
hold marches and parades and make an effort to
bring their pig, Pegasus - whom they nominated in
Chicago - into the White House.
Washington, D. C. - The Administrative Committee of
the National Mobilization Committee to End the War
in Vietnam (NMC) met "en October 12 and 13 at the
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January 20
March 1969
March 3
April 1969
at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Cambridge, Massachusetts. Approximately forty
people attended; including David DELLINGER and Rennie
DAVIS, EMC leaders; Sidney PECK, a former member of
the Communist Party; and Arnold JOHNSON, a member
of the CPUSA national Committee. The Committee
decided that there was need for tight security
against FBI investigations of anti-riot law viola-
tions. A working committee was formed to make
plans for a demonstration at Washington, D. CO,
during the Presidential Inauguration.
Rennie DAVIS, NMC leader, recently announced to
anti-war protestors that there would be a "massive
convergence" of protestors in Washington on
Inauguration Day.
Appeal of the conviction of Dr. Benjamin SPOCK;
Rev. Wm. Sloane COFFIN, Mitchell GOODMAN, and
Michael FERBER for conspiring to urge others to
break the draft law is expected to come before
the Supreme Court in March.
On 4 November, attorneys for Dr. SPOCK filed a
statement in the U. S. Court of Appeals that the
conviction violated their constitutional right to
free speech. They filed ten issues on which they
hope to overturn the conviction, raising the ques-
tion of whether conviction was "based upon con-
stitutionally protected speech."
*Memphis, Tennessee - James Earl RAY, accused assassin
of Martin Luther KING, Jr., switched from Attorney
Art HANES to Attorney Percy FOREMAN, just prior to
scheduled beginning of his trial 12 November. Al-
though Attorney HANES said the switch "was a delaying
tactic pure and simple," Judge W. Preston BATTLE
said he had no choice but to delay the trial and it
was postponed until 3 March 1969 - this date seems
also to be a tentative one as Attorney FOREMAN
indicated the didn't believe it would give him
adequate time to prepare his case.
The 19th Annual Convention of the CPUSA has been
scheduled for this time.
- .'1OURCES:_ Government and news media reports
RELIABILITY: Probably true
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